It’s time for a difficult conversation

Purdue head coach Barry Odom fired his defensive coordinator on Sunday.

The move came less than 24 hours after a 34-29 loss at home to the Maryland Terrapins (led by an interim head coach), who piled up 390 totals yards of offense against the Boilermakers’ defense.

You don’t have to squint to see why Odom decided to cut ties with defensive coordinator Kevin Kane. Purdue currently ranks 99th nationally in run defense, 116th in pass defense, and 124th in scoring defense.

Prior to joining Odom’s staff this past offseason, Kane was a defensive assistant last year at Minnesota, and the Gophers certainly did what they could to help their former assistant keep his job when the two teams met in West Lafayette earlier this season.

No opponent had fewer yards of total offense against Purdue this season (275). No opponent had fewer rushing yards against Purdue this season (27). And no opponent scored fewer points against Purdue this season (13).

That includes Indiana State, the FCS opponent from the Boilermakers’ season opener.

It would be one thing if that performance was an outlier this season for Minnesota. Instead it’s been the norm.

The Gophers currently rank 133rd nationally in rushing offense, 93rd in passing offense, and 93rd in scoring offense, averaging 24.7 points per game. That average drops to 17.4 points per game — a full touchdown less — when you narrow it down to games against Power 4 opponents.

The good news: Minnesota ranks 27th in the country in time of possession.

So they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

But if Kane’s defense wasn’t good enough for Odom, why is Greg Harbaugh’s offense good enough for Fleck?

Nine games was all Odom needed to see. Fleck has 48 games of data on which to judge Harbaugh.

Harbaugh’s best run game was in his first season as offensive coordinator back in 2023, when the Gophers ranked 65th in rushing offense and averaged 157.5 rushing yards per game. That average has declined with each successive season. His best passing game was with New Hampshire transfer quarterback Max Brosmer under center in 2024, when the offense ranked 76th in passing yards and averaged 222.2 per game.

The 26.2 points per game Minnesota averaged in that 2024 season is also a career-best for Harbaugh.

The Gophers ranked 80th nationally in scoring offense with that mark.

This season, three Big Ten programs have already fired their offensive coordinator. Two of them — Oregon and Nebraska — currently rank far ahead of Minnesota in both total offensive yards and scoring offense.

Are the standards and expectations different for Oregon and Nebraska than they are for Minnesota? Perhaps. The Ducks aspire to be national championship contenders, and the Huskers dream of being mentioned in the same conversation as national championship contenders. But I would counter that Minnesota’s offense these last four seasons, on paper at least, would be considered sub-standard by any program.

So why is it acceptable to P.J. Fleck?

Maybe he believes the Gophers simply don’t have the talent to play at a higher level on offense. Maybe he doesn’t believe he can find (and retain) a better offensive coordinator due to the program’s paltry assistant coach salary pool. Maybe he believes field goals win championships.

It’s also possible Fleck simply doesn’t believe Harbaugh is the primary issue.

And maybe he’s right.

Because the difficult conversation alluded to in the title of this article is not between Fleck and Harbaugh. In my opinion, that should be an easy conversation based on the past four years of data.

No, the difficult conversation I’m referring to is between P.J. Fleck and himself.

We’re a decade into Fleck’s tenure at Minnesota, and only once have the Gophers ranked in the Top 25 in scoring offense. That was during the 2019 season, when Minnesota averaged 34.1 points per game. In every other year of the Fleck era, the Gophers have ranked 64th or worse in total offense, and 64th or worse in scoring offense. Three offensive coordinators, one common denominator: P.J. Fleck.

Anemic offense has been a staple of his tenure. Is it by design?

It’s difficult to know how Fleck measures the success of his offense, considering he has retained Harbaugh for four seasons in spite of lackluster production on the ground, through the air, and on the scoreboard.

If it’s as simple as wins and losses, Fleck’s 71-48 overall record at Minnesota is no small feat, but his 42-43 conference record is less impressive, even if it is impressive in comparison to his predecessors.

Just imagine how much better those records would be with even a Top 60 offense.

I would be surprised if the decision comes in the next three weeks, but I don’t expect Fleck to retain Harbaugh as offensive coordinator beyond this season. No matter who he hires to replace him, Fleck needs to look in the mirror and ask himself if his preferred style of offense is helping this program or holding it back.